Sweetman Podcast: Episode 82 – Wayne Bell

I was in Auckland for a brief visit so I made the most of potential-podcast time and finally caught up with Wayne Bell. Wayne is a drummer, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. I’ve met Wayne a few times across the years and corresponded with him a fair bit – and we’ve talked of having a chat for the podcast since right back to when I was still just planning to get started on this…so it was great to finally find the time, between us, and sit down for a chat about Wayne’s life and career.

From lamenting the snare-drum sound on Bic Runga’s Drive to long-running associations with Greg Johnson, Jan Hellriegel, Dianne Swann and Brett Adams (The Bads) and to iconic performances (Bike) and working with legends (When The Cat’s Away, Finn/Runga/Dobbyn) Wayne has come close to seeing it all. He’s played almost any genre and under many different circumstances, he’s become a master of “the hang”, or the ability to do huge amounts of airport-time, drink copious cups of tea and wait; patiently wait…

So we talk about all of this, some of his key performances, some of the musical influences and stories that shaped him some of the music he loves.

It’s an open, honest and real conversation – what I always hope for with the podcast. Great that he had nothing to plug as such, just a catch-up and a talk-through a distinguished and long-running career from a talented player.

It was so great to finally get this all on tape – and I hope you enjoy listening to it too.
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